hankyoreh

Aug. 25. (Photo by Kim Kyung-ho)

By Lee Je-hoon, Staff writer　

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that North Korea officially requested emergency aid from the United Nations on Tuesday. North Korea has been suffering from serious flood damage due to the overflowing of the Amnok River, and the inundation of Sinuiju. The U.S. government announced that it is prepared to help if it receives a request from North Korea. In addition, Citizens’ Campaign for Sending Unification Rice to Realize Peace on the Korean Peninsula, a group including farmer groups and the five opposition parties, urged the government on Wednesday to immediately resume rice aid to North Korea.

According to a Radio Free Asia (RFA) report Wednesday, Geoffrey Keele, spokesman for UNICEF’s Asia office, said that North Korean authorities officially requested emergency aid from the UN on Tuesday afternoon. The report also quoted Keele as saying that a team of representatives from UN member countries was scheduled to meet formally with North Korean authorities on Wednesday.

Keele said that discussions at the meeting would focus on the extent of flood damage in North Korea and the scale of aid that the UN would be providing. UNICEF has already prepared emergency relief goods for 100 thousand people in anticipation of a request from North Korean authorities.

North Korea has previously made aid requests to private groups in the United States such as the Global Resource Services, but it reportedly did not respond to proposal of emergency aid to North Korea by UN bodies such as UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The emergency aid request from North Korea indicates a change in the country’s stance. Analysts are speculating that flood damages this summer, including the damage to Sinuiju, have been more serious than expected. The South Korean government estimates that North Korea has suffered flood damages throughout the country since the middle of last month, in Pyongyang, South Hamgyong, Chagang, Kangwon, and North Hwanghae Provinces as well as Sinuiju.

In connection with this, a joint press conference was held at the National Assembly briefing room Wednesday afternoon by the National Assembly Association to Bring Back Agriculture and Fishing, Citizens’ Campaign for Sending Unification Rice to Realize Peace on the Korean Peninsula, and the Farmers’ Association.

During the press conference, the groups said, “Peace is the sharing of food, and rice aid to North Korea gives peace to the Korean people and hope to farmers.” They also said that the government “must immediately accept the demands of the entire citizenry and provide rice aid to North Korea.”

Noting that some 480 billion Won in government finances are wasted each year on expenses from storing surplus rice, the groups said, “South Korean farmers are suffering from falling rice prices and chaos due to the rice in storage, while our fellow Koreans in North Korea lack food because of heavy rains.”

Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yu Myung-hwan said Wednesday that he “hopes North Korea will return unconditionally to the six-party talks.”

A MOFAT official reported Yu as saying this during an interview Wednesday with Japanese journalists visiting South Korea. Yu also reportedly said he would communicate to Special Representative of the Chinese Government on the Korean Peninsular Affairs Wu Dawei, who is visiting South Korea on Thursday, that “in order to resume the six-party talks, it is important that North Korea express, through concrete actions, its intent to denuclearize.”

Yu’s calls for an unconditional North Korean return to the talks smacks strongly of a refutaion to North Korea’s suggestion of “six-party talks on equal terms” and discussions on “a peace agreement and denuclearization,” which are being taken as a call for the lifting of sanctions against the country. It is noteworthy, however, in having a subtle difference in emphasis from the government’s existing position, which is that now is “not a situation to be discussing the resumption of the six-party talks.”

A MOFAT official said there has been “no change” in the government’s position, but added that “responding to the Cheonan situation and resuming the six-party talks are issues with different characters and dimensions.”

The official also said, “North Korea needs to show a responsible attitude on the Cheonan situation, and there is the circumstantial aspect in that something enormous happened and we cannot just pass over it as though it did not happen.” However, the same official added, “It is unreasonable to link the two cases directly.”

Analysts are interpreting this as suggesting that the administration may not directly link discussions on resuming the six-party talks with issue of sanctions following the Cheonan sinking.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]